Vietnam Braces for Typhoon Haiyan

HANOI–Vietnam is evacuating hundreds of thousands of people from its central coastal region in anticipation of typhoon Haiyan’s arrival Sunday after the record-breaking storm battered the Philippines.

Reuters

Residents collect sandbags to protect their houses against Typhoon Haiyan in Vietnam’s central Da Nang city on Nov. 9.

Haiyan is the strongest land-falling tropical cyclone in world history, according to Weather Underground.

“Haiyan had winds of 190-195 mph at landfall [in the Philippines], making it the strongest tropical cyclone on record to make landfall in world history,” said Dr. Jeff Masters, the director of meteorology at Weather Underground.

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It weakened after entering the South China Sea, but still remained fierce, with wind speeds of up to 163 kilometers an hour (101 miles per hour), according to the Vietnam National Center for Hydro-Meteorology Forecasting.

The forecasting center said the typhoon will approach Vietnam’s central coastal provinces Sunday morning and move along the coast before making landfall about 10 am.

Dr. Masters said Vietnam will experience sea surges, strong winds and one to two feet of rain, triggering floods.

“[Haiyan] is going to continue to weaken over the next few days as it approaches Vietnam,” Dr. Masters said. “But it is still going to be a powerful Category 1 or 2 cyclone when it hits the nation.”

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Friday ordered central provinces to call all boats ashore and told the Ministry of Defense to help those provinces expected to be most impacted move residents to safety shelters. Mr. Dung also told the state-run oil firm Petrovietnam to take precautions.

The city of Danang, a popular tourist destination, is expected to get hammered, and planned to evacuate more than 200,000 people by 4:00 pm Saturday local time. It has also banned boats from operating at sea, closed all schools and was shutting all markets Saturday afternoon.

“This is one of the most dangerous typhoons ever, and we have to do our best to ensure safety for local people to minimize the damages that the typhoon may cause,” Van Phong Luong, head of Danang’s anti-flood and storm department, told The Wall Street Journal.

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Indonesia Real Time provides analysis and insight into the region, which includes Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Brunei. Contact the editors at SEAsia@wsj.com.

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